Weir honored for reaching 1,000 points

Perhaps sheepishly on Tuesday, the Chester senior guard walked to center of Rocky Bridges Court and accepted a small trophy and ceremonial basketball from Yellow Jacket head coach Brad Norman and assistant coach Chris Toledo.

Weir recently became the 10th Chester boys basketball player to record 1,000 points in his career and stood at 1,076 after scoring 16 points later that night in a 76-48 rout of BDC West Division leader Christopher.

“It’s actually a funny story,” Weir said. “Coaches told me a couple of days ago that I made a thousand points and I thought I still had a little bit to go.

“But (Norman’s) like ‘You actually have 1,060-something,’ so I probably got it four games ago, but it’s honestly unbelievable.”

Weir is one of the more versatile weapons in Chester’s arsenal - an efficient free-throw shooter who can be lethal from beyond the arc, effective driving the baseline and capable of putting up 20-plus points if he gets in a rhythm.

But Weir also wasn’t sure he’d be able to play his senior year due to the lingering effects of a concussion suffered against the Bearcats in a game last season.

“I think it’s a great example of determination,” Norman said. “It was a prime example (Tuesday) when he shot that pump-fake jumper over (Bradley) Young, right there at that same spot Young fouled him last year and kind of put him on his back.

“It was a full circle. It was a full circle of being a really good ballplayer, being knocked on his butt, having to overcome injury and, more than anything, having to overcome adversity mentally.”

Weir had a slight setback earlier this season when he was inadvertently kneed in the head against Sesser-Valier, and told the Herald Tribune at the Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament that he was still working at trusting himself on drives to the basket.

“I didn’t think I was going to play at the beginning of the year,” Weir said. “I’ve got to give credit to my coaches and my family for pushing me.”

Norman said that Weir getting back on track was huge for the Yellow Jacket program.

“It’s not just huge for our basketball team, but it’s huge for Jack,” he said. “It’s huge for his life and he now knows if he can overcome that, he can overcome anything.”